BC enthused about the 749's cornering abilities, describing the bike as 'pure magic' once settled in to a corner. A long reach to the clip-ons and a less-than-smooth gearbox, however, had him whistling a different tune.

The 2006 Ducati 749s may have come in last in this test but the fact remains that it is a load of fun at the track. You don't even have to be fast to look good.

The 2006 Ducati 749s looks sharp from all angles.

Like Roberti, the 2006 Ducati 749s is a no-nonsense track warrior.

2006 Ducati 749s - Pilot: Shawn Roberti

High-speed cornering is what the 2006 Ducati 749s craves.

Smooth throttle response, a torquey and forgiving powerband, and one of the best chassis in the business help us forget its shortcomings.

The Ducati also fell a bit behind in the braking category, as its non-radial-mount front Brembos were universally judged to have a little too much initial bite.

Out of the six bikes in our track shootout, Donny B found the 749S to demand the most effort of the lot. Superb high-speed stability works against itself in the tigher corners.

Ergonomically, the Ducati's lanky riding position proved to be better on the track than on the street.

The Duc's strengths are also its weaknesses. It's different, and that's one of the reasons why we love it, despite what the scorecard results indicate.

As the lone Twin in our shootout, the Ducati 749S has endearing qualities, but they weren't enough to keep it off the bottom of our rankings.

The Duc's high rate of speed through the turns caused the front Pirelli Diablo Corsa's right side to be torn up at the end of the day.

In some ways, the Duc is as good as it gets, offering riding-on-rails corner speed and perhaps the most cooperative engine of the group.

The Ducati support team took real good care of our 2006 Ducati 749s test bike.